Can you destroy your former employer from a McDonalds? Apparently, yes.
A former IT worker for the United States subsidiary of a Japanese pharmaceutical company availed himself of some free McDonald’s wifi connection in Georgia (and possibly an irresistible $1 sweet tea) to hack his former employer’s computer system.
According to msnbc.com, in doing so, he successfully deleted the contents of 15 virtual servers (the equivalent of 88 non-virtual servers). On those servers, were the company’s e-mail and Blackberry servers, “its order tracking system, and its financial management software.” The attack effectively froze the company’s operations for days costing it more than $300,000 in damages.
It is pretty unbelievable that one employee could have so much power over a company’s IT infrastructure – especially one who no longer works there. This is a strong reminder that every company needs to re-examine to ensure they are not so vulnerable to a any one individual.
